Mirchi - Chillies in Indian Cuisine
Chilies have often been blamed for the ultimate spiciness of the Indian food to the extent that even other spices have paled in shadow. Spices have invariably given way to spiciness in the mind of innumerable admirers of Indian cuisine. Today we try to give an insight into the ingredient which has titillated the palate , new and old. Chilies have also been used in other cuisines like Thai, Chinese, Mexican and Italian.
Two kinds of chili are used in Indian cooking- the green chili which is used fresh and dried red chili. Even the green and the red vary in pungency and depends upon factors like ripeness, location etc. Just because of this reason, chilies are always indicative as far as their quantity is concerned in a particular recipe.
One way to tone down the pungency of chilies is to fry them; as a result the finished dishes will not be as hot as they may appear. You may experience the difference in pungency of the finished dishes which depends upon the way chili is introduced in the recipe, deseeded, chopped, whole, fried whole or dried flakes without seeds. Much of the heat is present in the seed which contains the chemical called capsaicin. There is no surprise that the hottest chili has its origin in India called Bhut Jolokia found in the North-East state of Assam. It rates 1,001,304 SHU (Scoville Heat Rating) and is recognized in The Guinness Book of World Record.
Baby potato and green chili pickle
½ kg baby potatoes, scraped and washed
8-10 green chilies split lengthwise with stem intact
1 tsp yellow mustard powder
1/3 tsp turmeric powder
½ tsp coriander powder
1tsp cumin powder
1 tsp red chili powder
1/3 cup vinegar
1 cup mustard oil
Salt to taste
Tempering
1 tsp black mustard seed
½ tsp onion seed (nigella seed)
½ tsp fenugreek seed
Method:
Boil baby potato in sea like salted potato until just done, rest of the cooking will be carried over by the internal heat. Heat oil in a pan, fry green chili for 30seconds. Add potatoes and toss until it just starts to take some colour. Drain the oil, reserve separately and put the potatoes in a large bowl. Add all the spice powders, vinegar, mustard oil and salt and mix well.
Reheat the reserved oil, add mustard seed and allow crackling. Next add onion seed and fenugreek seed and cook from another 30 seconds. Remove from heat and allow cooling. When cooled sprinkle on top of potatoes. Transfer the pickle to a clean dry container and use within a fortnight.
- Kuntal
Tags: vindaloo, dal, indian curry, tikka masala, kulfi, dhokla, balti, chana, sambhar, desi
